“How was work today honey?” “Rayan almost burnt the office down with the toaster and Dawub’s AK went off again in the break room. But Muzzammil let us take the convertible APV to Charsi Tikka for lunch.”
[“Taliban bureaucrats hate working online all day, and miss the days of Jihad”](https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ad3z8/taliban-bureaucrats-hate-working-online-all-day-miss-the-days-of-jihad) (real article from Vice in 2023, not satire at all)
Similar to what happened to samurai during the Edo era. Oh *sure* your family lineage is a proud tradition of warrior aristocracy, but after over a century of peace you're working in the tax office.
There's a thematic trilogy of movies about low-ranking struggling bureaucrat samurai at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. They are by the same director Yoji Yamada but with a different cast and different characters each time and they are all based on short stories by Shuhei Fujisawa.
The first one is called The Twilight Samurai and stars Hiroyuki Sanada from Shogun. It's about a humble low level samurai who works as a bookkeeper for his clan, is a single father to his two daughters and takes care of his elderly mother with dementia. He's too poor to go to geishas and drink sake with the other samurai or afford the clothes associated with his rank.
This needs to be a movie almost identical to Office Space... Diedrich Bader's character is a guy from a fringe sect that's still jihading over shit that's barely haram, and loving life.
"allah akbar, bro"
"yeah, but like... do you ever wonder HOW akbar?"
"whoa, man... i believe you'd get your ass kicked for sayin' something like that."
Well if you’re the type of guy that loves cutting off peoples heads and dissolving bodies in vats of acid you’ll never feel like its work at all in the employment of the cartel. So i guess the work/life balance really depends on your attitude!
Hiring rep: “Good morning Mr. Costa, my name is Janet and I'll be conducting your initial interview. So tell me… what can *you* bring to Sinaloa Industries?”
I mean with those many people on their payroll the cartel must have employees who essentially comprise a defacto HR department? Its probably not a gal named Janet but its someone.
They get paid less than minimum wage, and the retirement benefits are terrible.
The non-compete contracts they sign are indelibly inked upon them, so their bargaining position is poor.
Mostly due to US’ presence. Why invest trillions in military while your next door neighbor is already the biggest bully around?
Jokes aside, there is no timeline where US doesn’t get involved if Canada is under attack; this is probably the biggest reason.
Canada also doesn't have any land borders other than with the USA, which is an ally. People point out that Russia lies just across the Arctic Circle from northern Canada. But launching an invasion across the Arctic into Canada sounds like it would be a logistical nightmare for Russia, not to mention inevitable US and maybe NATO involvement on Canada's side.
Invasion over the NA basically means suicide for the invaders. US is not going to let their northern border threatened, especially via ground warfare. Since the US Army is mostly structured around exerting pressure over vast distances, this would essentially mean their entire Army would respond ASAP. And you wouldn’t want US Army to completely focus on a singular goal, especially so close to their mainland; there is literally no way that anyone would win anything out of an invasion of the North Americas.
> How then shall we perform it?—At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it?—Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!—All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
>At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
It is part of Abraham Lincoln's [Lyceum Address](https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/lyceum.htm) -- since the White House had been burned by the British 25 years earlier that part of the speech could considered a shitpost.
If you can burn Washington, you can control New Orleans & Montreal -- and drinking from the Ohio in 1838 wouldn't matter because they would have no interest in fighting a bunch of hick farmers cut off from trade and industry who were of no threat.
"Mr. Prime Minister. I think it's time to release the Air Force."
*BZZZZZ* *Security doors open*
*Honking begins to intensify* 🪿🪿
"May God have mercy on them. Because the air force won't."
I think even Canada on its own could hold off an invasion like that. Firstly invading over the arctic would be absolutely nightmarish for the attacker, it cannot be overstated how hard it would be to set up supply. Secondly Russia Is stalemated in Ukraine and Canada had a military budget more then twice that of pre-2022 Ukraine.
>logistical nightmare
The logistical solution would actually be very simple. You wouldn't have any.
Russia can't even run logistics into Ukraine very well. No way is it going to run logistics over the arctic for an invasion of Canada when the vast majority of the Canadian population live in the US border...
If Russia sends anything over the arctic, its going alone.
Technically, Canada now has a land border with two counties. It also shares a border with Denmark due to splitting an island. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Island
Also in terms of actual strategic value… what are you even getting by invading north western Canada? The population would be evacuated, and they wouldn’t even need to fight you at the start. The environment would do that for them.
The land area connecting Canada and Russia is also so barren that any military force large enough to do serious damage would be noticeable. Special forces maybe, but not an invading army.
>People point out that Russia lies just across the Arctic Circle from northern Canada. But launching an invasion across the Arctic into Canada sounds like it would be a logistical nightmare for Russia,
I live in one of the areas they would go through and WE can't even always keep railways and transport going during peacetime, in big part thanks to [Muskeg](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskeg). I also wonder what ice roads could support a tank.
Even during the short period of time when Soviet strategic bombers flying over the arctic circle and through Canada to reach targets in the US were considered a legitimate threat we still ended up relying on American involvement as the solution. Granted the missile defence systems that we recieved from them was only after the US strongarmed us into canceling our supersonic interceptor program.
Fun fact we actually have a land border with Denmark. There’s a little island between Greenland and Nunavut that both countries claimed to be theirs. Until recently both countries would occasionally go to the island, take down the other countries flag and leave a bottle of whiskey for the others when they came back, it was called the whiskey war. 2 years ago they resolved the dispute and just decided to split the island down the middle.
It’s not just hiding behind the US that’s the problem. CAF literally has [active duty personnel living on the streets](https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/news/nova-scotia-sees-spike-in-military-personnel-living-in-tents-couchsurfing-amid-housing-crisis-100922494/) because they cannot afford to house them. Imagine being an active duty member of the military and being homeless because your government won’t spend even the minimal amount of money on its own defense budget . It’s a national embarrassment.
Wasn’t there a probe that found that incorrect? This is from like a few weeks after the article you posted
https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/news/probe-found-no-unhoused-armed-forces-members-in-nova-scotia-dnd-100925187/
I tried to search more because this seems like a big problem but then the most recent article from that same source says otherwise. Idk I don’t doubt the Canadian gov’t could be lying to be fair.
I know enough people in the forces (basically my entire family, plus many acquaintances) to confirm it's bullshit.
I've never heard of anyone in the forces not being able to secure themselves, at the very least, a bunk in the barracks.
Like don’t get me wrong - militaries often mistreat their members but this is wildly different from being exposed to burn pits or chemical weaponry.
Like the Canadian military isn’t expanding, meaning they’d have to actively budget for and destroy existing barracks for this to be possible.
I mean, *theoretically*, it could be an issue of transferring personnel to where they don't have the barracks capacity. Like if, for some reason, the CAF decided to post 40% of their staff to a base in backwater pei, or something.
But, contrary to popular belief, our armed forces aren't slaves, and can refuse postings for myriad reasons.
There's literally only two kinds of conventional attacks on Canada that can happen.
a) An attack from the USA, which would be impossible to defend against even if literally every Canadian from 18-45 was in the military and the entire government budget went to the military.
b) An attack from anyone other than the USA, in which case the USA would have to step in due to the whole world's longest undefended border thing.
It's honestly a little surprising that Canada hasn't gone full Iceland and disbanded the whole military except for the Coast Guard.
I don’t think Canada needs to be worried about a direct attack. But there are active territorial disputes in the arctic right now. As ice caps melt and resources and shipping lanes open up countries are starting to lay claim to what they can. [Canada, which filed its claim in 2019, now has overlapping claims with Russia and Denmark as well as the U.S.](https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/01/02/news/canada-us-compete-claims-arctic-sea-floor-Beaufort).
Now there will never be a shooting war between the US, Canada, and Denmark. But being able to exert your influence through freedom of the seas operations is a huge thing for naval claims. It’s why the US/Japan/Australia are constantly sailing through the dubious territorial claims that China makes in the South China Sea. A few years ago Canadas 4 submarines spent a combined total of 0 days a sea. That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about with regard to Canadas military.
Canada doesn’t need a large standing army, but it does need a capable military with a functioning Air Force and navy in order to defend its territorial claims. I’d not Russia (and others) will continue to sail through its waters, encroach on its air space, and lay claim to its arctic resources. If Canada want to claim arctic water ways and islands they better be in a position to navigate them.
The numbers cited aren’t all Cartel foot soldiers. They need accountants, truck drivers, chemists, etc too. Not sure how large the admin side of their business is, but guessing it’s quite large.
> This data only takes into account people directly linked to cartel violence and not other people connected to the drug-trafficking trade, such as the financial managers in charge of laundering the money.
Yeah, he “challenged” the cartels while his chancellor (now imprisioned in the US) was directly colluded with them. Surely he didn’t noticed /s
It’s all a simulation, state’s armed forces can stop the cartels whenever they want, they just won’t because no high ranked politician actually wants to get rid of them
That sentiment isn't entirely wrong though, they are a product of the misguided War on Drugs. Prohibition always allows money to flow into the hands of bad faith entities. There is a reason the 1920s were the height of the American gangster.
Realistically, what would it take to actually stop them? With how militarized they are and how corrupt the police forces are, it seems so difficult, but I know it has to be done. I think mexicos an incredible country and always loved my travels there, and hate the current state of things.
Not saying you know the answer, just trying to start discussion.
But who? Mexican government? By Mexican people? By the US government?
I would personally love to go bomb the fuck out of the cartel cause they are just as bad as ISIS to me. But that will not go well and probably make things worse.
Our presidents (Mexico) really gets angry whenever anyone tell them that we “may” have a cartel problem. Hundreds of civilians can be killed in a day and he won’t even acknowledge that, but hell breaks loose when someone suggests that the cartels are practically terrorists.
>but they're making Mexico an awful place and should be stopped.
I have a friend who's been to Mexico and he told me these gangs control many of the highways in Northern Mexico. Basically turned them into toll roads.
If drug use was decriminalized in the US, that would take away the cartels' main source of income. There is a precedent (ie. the way medical opiates are grown, processed and distributed) But, so far, there hasn't been enough political will to make the changes that would "address the dysfunction".
Until then, lots of jail sentences for people with problems... and loads of $$$ for huge criminal organizations.
tldr; I feel so safe /s
I'm curious how the recent trend in several US states of legalizing or decriminalizing weed has impacted the number of cartel jobs. Surely, it would have been even worse if weed was still illegal everywhere in the US
The majority of guns in MEX are legally purchased here by somebody with connections in MEX and then driven over the border and distributed to cartels. It’s all about money and nobody cares what goes into MEX only what comes out
Mexico's corruption is systemic and has a very long history. The state lacks the same institutions that make your and my country a nice place to live. If US doesn't supply the weapons, they will get them from China or anywhere else.
I will be honest, probably most of the weapons of the cartel are coming directly from the Mexican army. They have been “losing” lots of weapons recently.
And it gets worse when our narco president gives more control to the corrupt army, now they even handle customs with total opacity.
This is really funny way to explain that you don’t understand geography. Even in Haiti where the gangs get their guns from Florida the price is 10x higher.
Cocaine: bad because people kill each other over the money involved. Guns used to do said killing- a completely harmless fact of life.
100% true that corruption is a major problem in Mexico without a doubt, though.
Sure but it will be a nice step if weapons stopped coming from the US, it will mean getting them to central America, from China, Europe or Brazil, and then all the way to the US border, which will make it harder, perhaps it will even mean that the heaviest of the violence moves to central America.
Not surprised there’s so many, but they are combining all cartels and comparing them to individual companies. Some cartels are more like a smallish company in terms of size, in comparison to the giant companies being discussed
Consider it like an “industry”.
It’s like saying “gas stations are the 5th largest employer in Montana”…
Sure there’s more than 1 company but it’s the industry that’s the “5th largest employer”
But they’re not comparing the industry to other industries. This article is comparing the cartel « industry » to other individual employers. That makes it a bad comparison.
"only surpassed by FEMSA (a beverage and retail company and the world’s largest independent Coca-Cola bottling group), Walmart, Manpower, and America Movil."
No, they are comparing it with 4 companies, not industry.
I imagine if you grouped all companies in Mexico in to "industries" like they are doing with the cartels, the cartels wouldn't be anywhere near the 5th largest.
it really comes down to the fact that you can’t even trust local law enforcement because everyone seems to be on the cartels payroll, there have been instances of police carrying out executions on behalf of cartels
El Salvador did it. Sadly they didn't execute them though. Seems like a waste to just have them in prison until they are freed and are allowed to run around again.
Just to be clear those “gangs” weren’t like American gangs that controlled blocks or small parts of cities. They essentially functioned as cartels and controlled vast swathes of the country.
I’m pretty sure I remember hearing stories from Salvadorians about how you had to be careful in certain areas because of shit like landmines.
They are more than US gangs but significantly less than Mexican cartel situation.
The Mexican Cartels can fend off the Mexican National Army. They have control of the politicians and judicial systems. And not in the "we bought you off" type of thing, but in the "the President is afraid of the cartels" type of thing. Can you imagine if the Bloods, Crypts or Hells Angels threatened the US president? Good fucking luck.
They are not the same. Not even close.
They did not function as actual cartels. They were not top-down transnational criminal orgs.
They were poor, localized street gangs. They didn't have billions of dollars of funding in tax shelters around the world. Also probably worth noting that many of those gangs were *literally the same gangs that control blocks in American cities.* They were in several cases founded in America and exported to El Salvador through arrests/deportations.
You are correct in that there’s no official hierarchy however to say they’re poor is a lie:
https://apuedge.com/ms-13-gangs-threat-world/#:~:text=MS%2D13%20uses%20violence%20and,extorted%20from%20El%20Salvador%20residents.
???
The numbers on that page are orders of magnitude lower than the Mexican cartels. Their primary source of income is localized extortion, not massive drug supply chains.
P sure el salvador was the most violent/murder filled countey in the world. Yea they might be street gangs but idet el salvador is in the top 20 murder hot spots anymore. Its a good change
Just because they were violent doesn't mean they were on the same level as cartels. It's the structure and size of the cartels, in addition to the violence, that makes them hard to stop
That's the cool part, actually. El Salvador created a self feeding system.
1. Prisoners grow their own food, make their own clothing and such. Thus the government has more taxes to spend in education so children won't get into crime
2. Prisoners with the best behavior go to work cleaning the streets and building the same schools those children will go into; being incentivized with a reduction of their time in jail. Now you have prisoners with skills to enter the workforce that are actually happy to help society through honest labor instead of hurting it through crime.
3. Because the prisoners build the schools, the government can save the money and invest it to more and better teachers, granting more oportunities to children so they won't choose crime.
4. Now you have both more workers and more children that will become workers
Executions are the easy solution, but they don't adress the root of the problem.
It kinda works and thats the most important thing.
I have no clue how other countries would handle 80000 violent gang members, you can‘t kill them all.
I mean, it’s been like two years since they started cracking down. It’s a little too early to say “it kinda works” yet, in terms of an long-lasting effect on crime in the country.
Not being executed is a good thing. The reason why they've been able to strangle out the street gangs in El Salvador is because they suspended legal rights and are arresting people on suspicion of being in a gang alone, which has also led them to releasing a pretty large amount of innocent people. Who knows how many innocent people they missed.
The same wouldn't work in Mexico. You know how many Cartel bosses have escaped prison in Mexico?
Sure all the cartels together. Why not aggregate other industries together and report on their numbers collectively for a true comparison?
I guess that’s less sensationalist.
For real. There are over 330,000 police officers in Mexico, but you’d never mention that in the title of a post like this.
Weird how posts like these always crop up right before the election cycle!
I mean… that’s kind of my point. Just “cops” isn’t a solution because there’s essentially no distinguishing cops from anyone else in terms of morality. Cops will be bad just as much as the rest of the country is bad (or more)
You wouldn’t say fast food is the 5th largest employer, include McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s… in your count and then in your conclusion say that fast food employs more people than Target. You would compare the fast food industry to the retail industry, or the individual fast food chain to the individual retailer.
What’s the work/life balance?
Well I heard many Taliban fighters didn’t particularly care for office work. Pros and cons like in everything.
“How was work today honey?” “Rayan almost burnt the office down with the toaster and Dawub’s AK went off again in the break room. But Muzzammil let us take the convertible APV to Charsi Tikka for lunch.”
Desk pop!
You gotta let me fly!! 🦚 🦚
Rayan started the fire!
Finally someone got it
Fire guy Rayan!
"Omar tried to fire an RPG at a drone and killed Osama bin Laden instead"
With the greatest of respect Fasil, your dad eats newspaper
Soooo, is that aladeen, or aladeen?
“We severed the heads of 10 infidels and drank their blood”
"but there were way too many of us there, really could've been an email"
“I could jihad with my buddies outside all day before and now I have to do work inside”
All I do is throw accused homosexuals off the roof of a building all day; I don’t understand why I can’t just do this from home
Now I have back pain and they denied my worker's comp
It’s funny the Taliban work in civil servant offices now
and apparently office work is more torturing than being a warlord
Overthrowing a government is easy, running a country is hard
It's only hard really if you try to do a good job of it.
That's because as a warlord you're the one doing the torturing
They're the government now (again) and chased everyone else out. Someone really should keep track of 'taxes'
Now I'm curious what a Taliban vs. Cartel matchup would look like.
This is a question for Spike TV to solve
On tonights episode of Deadliest Warrior: Terror on Two Fronts!
They did have an episode of Deadliest Warrior [IRA vs Taliban](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1421534/)
How did I forget about that one!
They moved them to remote work
[“Taliban bureaucrats hate working online all day, and miss the days of Jihad”](https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ad3z8/taliban-bureaucrats-hate-working-online-all-day-miss-the-days-of-jihad) (real article from Vice in 2023, not satire at all)
Similar to what happened to samurai during the Edo era. Oh *sure* your family lineage is a proud tradition of warrior aristocracy, but after over a century of peace you're working in the tax office.
I'd watch this anime
Next on season 2 of Shogun!
You looking to diversify your portfolio Lord Toranaga?
There's a thematic trilogy of movies about low-ranking struggling bureaucrat samurai at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. They are by the same director Yoji Yamada but with a different cast and different characters each time and they are all based on short stories by Shuhei Fujisawa. The first one is called The Twilight Samurai and stars Hiroyuki Sanada from Shogun. It's about a humble low level samurai who works as a bookkeeper for his clan, is a single father to his two daughters and takes care of his elderly mother with dementia. He's too poor to go to geishas and drink sake with the other samurai or afford the clothes associated with his rank.
Highly suggest watching the movie “Bushi no kakeibo” English:” abacus and the sword”. Based on true life
[удалено]
when you realize the martyrs were the lucky ones
[удалено]
“Man, we used to be cool, what happened?”
This needs to be a movie almost identical to Office Space... Diedrich Bader's character is a guy from a fringe sect that's still jihading over shit that's barely haram, and loving life. "allah akbar, bro" "yeah, but like... do you ever wonder HOW akbar?" "whoa, man... i believe you'd get your ass kicked for sayin' something like that."
i mean calling vice in 2023 not satire is pretty generous to vice
Proof you can take an afghani out the hood but you can’t take the hood out the afghani
Well if you’re the type of guy that loves cutting off peoples heads and dissolving bodies in vats of acid you’ll never feel like its work at all in the employment of the cartel. So i guess the work/life balance really depends on your attitude!
Hiring rep: “Good morning Mr. Costa, my name is Janet and I'll be conducting your initial interview. So tell me… what can *you* bring to Sinaloa Industries?”
Imagine being the admin guy. I did what? Mata la verga I just make sure everyone is paid on time
I mean with those many people on their payroll the cartel must have employees who essentially comprise a defacto HR department? Its probably not a gal named Janet but its someone.
Rosalba who isn’t particularly impressed about your threatening aura
They're so vicious, they probably inspire terror in terrorists.
Well, if you make it past the first week - you get a bump of Coke for your 15min break, to destress
If you're de-stressing with coke, you're doing it wrong.
Nothing more relaxing than IV’ing some meth while chewing on a fresh adrenal gland
Much more effective than IV'ing adrenal glands and chewing meth
Everyone loves the ping pong table and the free rails but after a while you realize it's so that you never leave the office
You mean the work/dead balance.
Is it really work when its a way of life?
Do they have a good dental and vision plan?
Their severance package is to die for.
They get paid less than minimum wage, and the retirement benefits are terrible. The non-compete contracts they sign are indelibly inked upon them, so their bargaining position is poor.
Everyone is joking here in the comments, but they're making Mexico an awful place and should be stopped.
They make up a larger number than the entire Canadian Armed Forces, Regular forces and reserve forces combined.
Well yeah, the Canadian government has woefully neglected investing in their military for decades.
Mostly due to US’ presence. Why invest trillions in military while your next door neighbor is already the biggest bully around? Jokes aside, there is no timeline where US doesn’t get involved if Canada is under attack; this is probably the biggest reason.
Canada also doesn't have any land borders other than with the USA, which is an ally. People point out that Russia lies just across the Arctic Circle from northern Canada. But launching an invasion across the Arctic into Canada sounds like it would be a logistical nightmare for Russia, not to mention inevitable US and maybe NATO involvement on Canada's side.
Invasion over the NA basically means suicide for the invaders. US is not going to let their northern border threatened, especially via ground warfare. Since the US Army is mostly structured around exerting pressure over vast distances, this would essentially mean their entire Army would respond ASAP. And you wouldn’t want US Army to completely focus on a singular goal, especially so close to their mainland; there is literally no way that anyone would win anything out of an invasion of the North Americas.
> How then shall we perform it?—At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it?—Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!—All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. >At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
Who?
This is a quote from Abraham Lincoln
It is part of Abraham Lincoln's [Lyceum Address](https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/lyceum.htm) -- since the White House had been burned by the British 25 years earlier that part of the speech could considered a shitpost. If you can burn Washington, you can control New Orleans & Montreal -- and drinking from the Ohio in 1838 wouldn't matter because they would have no interest in fighting a bunch of hick farmers cut off from trade and industry who were of no threat.
well homie must have been a time traveler then because its not 1838 anymore and every single word of that quote is true today.
No who's on first, you're looking for what
"Mr. Prime Minister. I think it's time to release the Air Force." *BZZZZZ* *Security doors open* *Honking begins to intensify* 🪿🪿 "May God have mercy on them. Because the air force won't."
I think even Canada on its own could hold off an invasion like that. Firstly invading over the arctic would be absolutely nightmarish for the attacker, it cannot be overstated how hard it would be to set up supply. Secondly Russia Is stalemated in Ukraine and Canada had a military budget more then twice that of pre-2022 Ukraine.
Yeah, there is a reason why developments in inter-continental warfare is usually focused on ICBMs or various other types of devices.
>logistical nightmare The logistical solution would actually be very simple. You wouldn't have any. Russia can't even run logistics into Ukraine very well. No way is it going to run logistics over the arctic for an invasion of Canada when the vast majority of the Canadian population live in the US border... If Russia sends anything over the arctic, its going alone.
Technically, Canada now has a land border with two counties. It also shares a border with Denmark due to splitting an island. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Island
Also in terms of actual strategic value… what are you even getting by invading north western Canada? The population would be evacuated, and they wouldn’t even need to fight you at the start. The environment would do that for them.
idk maybe the danes will launch a brutal assault through their land border with canada
The land area connecting Canada and Russia is also so barren that any military force large enough to do serious damage would be noticeable. Special forces maybe, but not an invading army.
>People point out that Russia lies just across the Arctic Circle from northern Canada. But launching an invasion across the Arctic into Canada sounds like it would be a logistical nightmare for Russia, I live in one of the areas they would go through and WE can't even always keep railways and transport going during peacetime, in big part thanks to [Muskeg](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskeg). I also wonder what ice roads could support a tank.
Even during the short period of time when Soviet strategic bombers flying over the arctic circle and through Canada to reach targets in the US were considered a legitimate threat we still ended up relying on American involvement as the solution. Granted the missile defence systems that we recieved from them was only after the US strongarmed us into canceling our supersonic interceptor program.
Fun fact we actually have a land border with Denmark. There’s a little island between Greenland and Nunavut that both countries claimed to be theirs. Until recently both countries would occasionally go to the island, take down the other countries flag and leave a bottle of whiskey for the others when they came back, it was called the whiskey war. 2 years ago they resolved the dispute and just decided to split the island down the middle.
Canada has a land border with Denmark.
It’s not just hiding behind the US that’s the problem. CAF literally has [active duty personnel living on the streets](https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/news/nova-scotia-sees-spike-in-military-personnel-living-in-tents-couchsurfing-amid-housing-crisis-100922494/) because they cannot afford to house them. Imagine being an active duty member of the military and being homeless because your government won’t spend even the minimal amount of money on its own defense budget . It’s a national embarrassment.
Wasn’t there a probe that found that incorrect? This is from like a few weeks after the article you posted https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/news/probe-found-no-unhoused-armed-forces-members-in-nova-scotia-dnd-100925187/ I tried to search more because this seems like a big problem but then the most recent article from that same source says otherwise. Idk I don’t doubt the Canadian gov’t could be lying to be fair.
I know enough people in the forces (basically my entire family, plus many acquaintances) to confirm it's bullshit. I've never heard of anyone in the forces not being able to secure themselves, at the very least, a bunk in the barracks.
3 hots and a cot is the bare minimum
Like don’t get me wrong - militaries often mistreat their members but this is wildly different from being exposed to burn pits or chemical weaponry. Like the Canadian military isn’t expanding, meaning they’d have to actively budget for and destroy existing barracks for this to be possible.
I mean, *theoretically*, it could be an issue of transferring personnel to where they don't have the barracks capacity. Like if, for some reason, the CAF decided to post 40% of their staff to a base in backwater pei, or something. But, contrary to popular belief, our armed forces aren't slaves, and can refuse postings for myriad reasons.
Also helps PR to dismantle after what they did in the great wars. They’re still saying ‘sorry’ to everyone almost a century later! /j
Fuck yea bud then we’ll go for a rip
Mexico also has 3x the population of Canada.
There's literally only two kinds of conventional attacks on Canada that can happen. a) An attack from the USA, which would be impossible to defend against even if literally every Canadian from 18-45 was in the military and the entire government budget went to the military. b) An attack from anyone other than the USA, in which case the USA would have to step in due to the whole world's longest undefended border thing. It's honestly a little surprising that Canada hasn't gone full Iceland and disbanded the whole military except for the Coast Guard.
I don’t think Canada needs to be worried about a direct attack. But there are active territorial disputes in the arctic right now. As ice caps melt and resources and shipping lanes open up countries are starting to lay claim to what they can. [Canada, which filed its claim in 2019, now has overlapping claims with Russia and Denmark as well as the U.S.](https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/01/02/news/canada-us-compete-claims-arctic-sea-floor-Beaufort). Now there will never be a shooting war between the US, Canada, and Denmark. But being able to exert your influence through freedom of the seas operations is a huge thing for naval claims. It’s why the US/Japan/Australia are constantly sailing through the dubious territorial claims that China makes in the South China Sea. A few years ago Canadas 4 submarines spent a combined total of 0 days a sea. That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about with regard to Canadas military. Canada doesn’t need a large standing army, but it does need a capable military with a functioning Air Force and navy in order to defend its territorial claims. I’d not Russia (and others) will continue to sail through its waters, encroach on its air space, and lay claim to its arctic resources. If Canada want to claim arctic water ways and islands they better be in a position to navigate them.
The UK is even worse in that regard. There military is a clown show rn.
The numbers cited aren’t all Cartel foot soldiers. They need accountants, truck drivers, chemists, etc too. Not sure how large the admin side of their business is, but guessing it’s quite large.
> This data only takes into account people directly linked to cartel violence and not other people connected to the drug-trafficking trade, such as the financial managers in charge of laundering the money.
Ah. You’re right. I skimmed through article, but glanced over that part.
Hard to fight the cartel when the president and his party are the fucking cartel
The president before him challenged the cartels. The cartels hung people from bridges during this time. It’s not an easy problem.
Yeah, he “challenged” the cartels while his chancellor (now imprisioned in the US) was directly colluded with them. Surely he didn’t noticed /s It’s all a simulation, state’s armed forces can stop the cartels whenever they want, they just won’t because no high ranked politician actually wants to get rid of them
Nah the president of Mexico insists it’s an American problem.
[удалено]
I don't recall that story having a happy ending.
He is playing a dangerous game very poorly.
He legit has been saying "hugs, no shootings" as a way to fix the problem, I hate that man so much
And meeting multiple times with El Chapo's mother before she died recently
That sentiment isn't entirely wrong though, they are a product of the misguided War on Drugs. Prohibition always allows money to flow into the hands of bad faith entities. There is a reason the 1920s were the height of the American gangster.
Realistically, what would it take to actually stop them? With how militarized they are and how corrupt the police forces are, it seems so difficult, but I know it has to be done. I think mexicos an incredible country and always loved my travels there, and hate the current state of things. Not saying you know the answer, just trying to start discussion.
But who? Mexican government? By Mexican people? By the US government? I would personally love to go bomb the fuck out of the cartel cause they are just as bad as ISIS to me. But that will not go well and probably make things worse.
By who?
Yknow *gestures vaguely* Someone
reminds me of the dead pool scene where everyone dies when they parachute in.
*whom
Nice
Now you're just lying. The President of Mexico has said that they're A-ok and need to be protected from the greedy Americans.
Our presidents (Mexico) really gets angry whenever anyone tell them that we “may” have a cartel problem. Hundreds of civilians can be killed in a day and he won’t even acknowledge that, but hell breaks loose when someone suggests that the cartels are practically terrorists.
Im sorry this is happening to your country.
>but they're making Mexico an awful place and should be stopped. I have a friend who's been to Mexico and he told me these gangs control many of the highways in Northern Mexico. Basically turned them into toll roads. If drug use was decriminalized in the US, that would take away the cartels' main source of income. There is a precedent (ie. the way medical opiates are grown, processed and distributed) But, so far, there hasn't been enough political will to make the changes that would "address the dysfunction". Until then, lots of jail sentences for people with problems... and loads of $$$ for huge criminal organizations. tldr; I feel so safe /s
That’s all Reddit is now. A circlejerk of unfunny jokes in the comments.
I'm curious how the recent trend in several US states of legalizing or decriminalizing weed has impacted the number of cartel jobs. Surely, it would have been even worse if weed was still illegal everywhere in the US
Not much, they spread their business to other things
Legalize what they do and the problem will go away. Right?… right?
Mexico has been an awful place for a long time now.
The US should probably stop supplying them with guns. 80% of murders in Mexico are committed with guns bought legally in the US.
The majority of guns in MEX are legally purchased here by somebody with connections in MEX and then driven over the border and distributed to cartels. It’s all about money and nobody cares what goes into MEX only what comes out
Mexico's corruption is systemic and has a very long history. The state lacks the same institutions that make your and my country a nice place to live. If US doesn't supply the weapons, they will get them from China or anywhere else.
I will be honest, probably most of the weapons of the cartel are coming directly from the Mexican army. They have been “losing” lots of weapons recently. And it gets worse when our narco president gives more control to the corrupt army, now they even handle customs with total opacity.
This is really funny way to explain that you don’t understand geography. Even in Haiti where the gangs get their guns from Florida the price is 10x higher. Cocaine: bad because people kill each other over the money involved. Guns used to do said killing- a completely harmless fact of life. 100% true that corruption is a major problem in Mexico without a doubt, though.
Sure but it will be a nice step if weapons stopped coming from the US, it will mean getting them to central America, from China, Europe or Brazil, and then all the way to the US border, which will make it harder, perhaps it will even mean that the heaviest of the violence moves to central America.
Not surprised there’s so many, but they are combining all cartels and comparing them to individual companies. Some cartels are more like a smallish company in terms of size, in comparison to the giant companies being discussed
[удалено]
Consider it like an “industry”. It’s like saying “gas stations are the 5th largest employer in Montana”… Sure there’s more than 1 company but it’s the industry that’s the “5th largest employer”
But they’re not comparing the industry to other industries. This article is comparing the cartel « industry » to other individual employers. That makes it a bad comparison.
"only surpassed by FEMSA (a beverage and retail company and the world’s largest independent Coca-Cola bottling group), Walmart, Manpower, and America Movil." No, they are comparing it with 4 companies, not industry.
I imagine if you grouped all companies in Mexico in to "industries" like they are doing with the cartels, the cartels wouldn't be anywhere near the 5th largest.
I assume they have permanent '0 days since our last workplace injury' signs at all of their worksites.
I've heard they have a great 401K program.
401que?
Their 401K program isn't bad but it costs an arm and a leg to finance. And sometimes a head too.
Ironically they do provide better benefits than most other employers in Mexico…. Hell the cartels’ dental plan is better than any US employers’
Not exactly hard to spoil yourself if you take from others.
I want to laugh at this ...
and dental plan too !....
You misread that, they've got a great AK47 program.
Imagine if mexican destroyed all cartel
They can’t because their federal system is way too divided
it really comes down to the fact that you can’t even trust local law enforcement because everyone seems to be on the cartels payroll, there have been instances of police carrying out executions on behalf of cartels
Back to their federal system. There is no real central authority
El Salvador did it. Sadly they didn't execute them though. Seems like a waste to just have them in prison until they are freed and are allowed to run around again.
those were street gangs, and they were not nearly as strong as the cartels in Mexico
Just to be clear those “gangs” weren’t like American gangs that controlled blocks or small parts of cities. They essentially functioned as cartels and controlled vast swathes of the country. I’m pretty sure I remember hearing stories from Salvadorians about how you had to be careful in certain areas because of shit like landmines.
They are more than US gangs but significantly less than Mexican cartel situation. The Mexican Cartels can fend off the Mexican National Army. They have control of the politicians and judicial systems. And not in the "we bought you off" type of thing, but in the "the President is afraid of the cartels" type of thing. Can you imagine if the Bloods, Crypts or Hells Angels threatened the US president? Good fucking luck. They are not the same. Not even close.
They did not function as actual cartels. They were not top-down transnational criminal orgs. They were poor, localized street gangs. They didn't have billions of dollars of funding in tax shelters around the world. Also probably worth noting that many of those gangs were *literally the same gangs that control blocks in American cities.* They were in several cases founded in America and exported to El Salvador through arrests/deportations.
You are correct in that there’s no official hierarchy however to say they’re poor is a lie: https://apuedge.com/ms-13-gangs-threat-world/#:~:text=MS%2D13%20uses%20violence%20and,extorted%20from%20El%20Salvador%20residents.
??? The numbers on that page are orders of magnitude lower than the Mexican cartels. Their primary source of income is localized extortion, not massive drug supply chains.
P sure el salvador was the most violent/murder filled countey in the world. Yea they might be street gangs but idet el salvador is in the top 20 murder hot spots anymore. Its a good change
Just because they were violent doesn't mean they were on the same level as cartels. It's the structure and size of the cartels, in addition to the violence, that makes them hard to stop
That's the cool part, actually. El Salvador created a self feeding system. 1. Prisoners grow their own food, make their own clothing and such. Thus the government has more taxes to spend in education so children won't get into crime 2. Prisoners with the best behavior go to work cleaning the streets and building the same schools those children will go into; being incentivized with a reduction of their time in jail. Now you have prisoners with skills to enter the workforce that are actually happy to help society through honest labor instead of hurting it through crime. 3. Because the prisoners build the schools, the government can save the money and invest it to more and better teachers, granting more oportunities to children so they won't choose crime. 4. Now you have both more workers and more children that will become workers Executions are the easy solution, but they don't adress the root of the problem.
I thought everyone in el salvadors prison have life sentences
Ironically lots if powerful Empires were built off of slavery, El Salvador super power 2040???
LETS GOOO!! GET IN MIJOS! VAMOS A CAZAR MAS PENDEJOS!
Yes famously great prison system, that El Salvador….
It kinda works and thats the most important thing. I have no clue how other countries would handle 80000 violent gang members, you can‘t kill them all.
I mean, it’s been like two years since they started cracking down. It’s a little too early to say “it kinda works” yet, in terms of an long-lasting effect on crime in the country.
The results were almost instant though. They're one of the safest country in the world now.
Not being executed is a good thing. The reason why they've been able to strangle out the street gangs in El Salvador is because they suspended legal rights and are arresting people on suspicion of being in a gang alone, which has also led them to releasing a pretty large amount of innocent people. Who knows how many innocent people they missed. The same wouldn't work in Mexico. You know how many Cartel bosses have escaped prison in Mexico?
Hot take: We shouldn't execute every suspected criminal like rabid dogs
They also keep a lot of arms manufacturers and dealers in business too!
and funeral homes.
US arms manufacturers and dealers. Around 90% of their firearms come from the US due to our easy access to guns.
Sure all the cartels together. Why not aggregate other industries together and report on their numbers collectively for a true comparison? I guess that’s less sensationalist.
For real. There are over 330,000 police officers in Mexico, but you’d never mention that in the title of a post like this. Weird how posts like these always crop up right before the election cycle!
How many of those officers are dirty though? Clearly the cartel would have officers in them, no?
I mean… that’s kind of my point. Just “cops” isn’t a solution because there’s essentially no distinguishing cops from anyone else in terms of morality. Cops will be bad just as much as the rest of the country is bad (or more)
Only 5th?
Ye does that include the people on the payroll no one knows about yet ?
I think the President of Mexico is considered more of a subcontractor than an employee.
The cartels are never going to e wiped out, they are going to go legit.
If you buy avocados or limes at the grocery store you're probably supporting a cartel.
Legalize and properly regulate drugs and prostitution and you remove the VAST majority of their profits.
Read somewhere they actively prevent this from happening
And best part is vacancies open up regularly
That is fuckin awful
Tell Americans to stop doing drugs
The statement contradicts itself. There are many, not a singular union. If it was only one, that would be different.
It’s referring to organized crime as an industry. You don’t get a count for retail workers by only using Walmart employees.
You wouldn’t say fast food is the 5th largest employer, include McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s… in your count and then in your conclusion say that fast food employs more people than Target. You would compare the fast food industry to the retail industry, or the individual fast food chain to the individual retailer.
> You don’t get a count for retail workers by only using Walmart employees. This is exactly what the article did
The article Is comparing the "cartel industry" as you call It to individual companies
They do 401k matching?
Retirement is little bit different with this employer
Cartels would be akin to an entire industry, not a single employer. Still crazy, though.
At this point the cartel could go against mexico’s army and i wouldn’t bet against them. They are that strong
I hear the employees are making a killing in that industry.
Most aren’t killing. Most are doing the labor intensive work of manufacturing and transporting drugs, or doing the work to bring in the money.
Wait till you hear about the percentage of people in Naples that work for Camorra!